Welcome to my set review where I will pick my five favourite cards of each colour from The Brothers’ War booster set!
Given that The Brothers’ War also comes out with a pair of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article. I also won’t be touching on reprints in either review.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Red cards from the set and the accompanying Commander sets.
I’ll begin by saying that I’m not entirely impressed by red’s offerings in this set. I think that there are a few cool things, but the list of cards for red is short compared to the other colours so far. I reviewed red for commandersherald.com and I did what I could to talk up some cards. The cards that stand out are few, but they are fantastic.
That said, Brotherhood’s End is one of my favourite cards in the set. I immediately made room for it in my Sevinne, the Chronoclasm deck because it’s a Brash Taunter tribal.
Having the flexibility to delay three damage to each creature and planeswalker or destroy all small artifacts is noteworthy. The most common criticism of the Magic design team of late has been that Treasure tokens are ubiquitous and as useful/powerful it is to create a Lotus Petal token at the rate we can now, it definitely warps games. Brotherhood’s End gets rid of Signets, Sol Rings, and, of course, Treasures. If you’re aware of this card in your deck, Gilded Lotus and Thran Dynamo should be your artifact ramp of choice. If you picked up the Tyranid precon, your The Swarmlord or Magus Lucea Kane decks will use land ramp and be able to dodge the three damage sweeper. Pick up your copies early, I can see this one getting to be at least $5.
I loved Feldon of the Third Path and based on the fact that he gets reprinted as much as he does, I know someone at Wizards of the Coast does too.
When I heard there’d be a new Feldon card, I was overjoyed. What kind of creature or artifact reanimation or cloning ability with he have?
None, it turns out.
Making sure Feldon can’t block means that he’s probably going to be swinging, especially with haste. Attacking with Feldon tells your opponents “hey, block with your beefy blocker”. They know their 5/5 is going to kill your 2/2, but they also know that this means you’ll get the best card from your top five.
I’m curious enough to try Feldon in my Sevinne deck. If you decide to make him your commander, be sure to pack a Pyrohemia. The card you choose of those exiled can be played until the end of your next turn. If you activate Pyrohemia once each turn, you’ve “drawn” four cards for the turn cycle and made sure your opponents can’t keep 1/1s on the board.
This little guy reminds me of a nerfed Bone Miser. He can rummage for one and tap which isn’t great, but if you discard an artifact, you’re essentially tapping him for a red mana and colour fixing another mana. Being limited to once a turn isn’t great, but threat of it happening when you have other discard outlets is pretty sweet when you’ve got other things to do with that mana.
I have an Anje Falkenrath deck that I’ll be trying out Lil’ Mishra in, but I think its real home is in Daretti, Scrap Savant decks. Daretti can’t +2 and -2 in the same turn. But Mishra can discard something crazy for Daretti to -2 (which is Trash for Treasure). Get a surprise artifact in the yard and help pay for the Scrap Mastery, you’re about to windmill slam.
The original preview for this card was in French and it its name was Exaggeration, which was appropriate.
I want to try this in a bunch of my decks.
Any deck where you flood the board, you’ll want to try this out. I have a Grand Warlord Radha deck that pumps out tokens like nobody’s business because it is a Glimpse of Tomorrow/Warp World deck. Over the Top is another way to make that happen.
My Prosper, Tome-Bound deck is much the same with all the Treasures. I’d like to dump half my library into play with these decks.
Conversely, Zaffai, Thunder Conductor can make a bunch of 4/4 Elemental tokens. By playing Over the Top, you’ll effectively flip somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 cards, bin all the instants and sorceries, hitting all of your lands and mana rocks, and getting to play Past in Flames or Mizzix’s Mastery.
Of course, this also happens to your opponents, but you’re the one playing the card. Maybe don’t play the card when your opponent has a massive stash of tokens. This will likely win them the game unless you’re following up with an Austere Command. Maybe they’ve got so many that you mill them out and once they draw, they die!
All in all, giving your opponents stuff doesn’t mean much when you’re about to kill them all.
5. Arms Race
Artifact Sneak Attack! But also it costs four to activate. And is oddly a mana ability? That’s strange. Sneak Attack is busted, we know that. Arms Race has the potential to also be busted, but less so. Surprising the table with an Eldrazi Monument in response to a Fumigate changes the course of events considerably. You can also cheat in Mycosynth Lattice while Vandalblast is on the stack. Sure, you’re evil, but you’re just the surprise powder keg – someone else had to shoot the gun!
Here’s a short list of cool cards to cheat in with Arms Race: Meteor Golem, Wurmcoil Engine, Bolas’s Citadel, all the Gearhulks.
Honorable Mentions:
- Mechanized Warfare – Manabarb decks, have fun! Cavalcade of Calamity decks are scarier now! Krenko needed the extra juice, I guess.
- Visions of Phyrexia – This is mostly a word of caution: If you play this in Prosper, Tome-Bound, make sure you properly track this. You don’t get the Powerstones if you played a card from exile your turn.
- Phyrexian Dragon Engine – This is really cool with Goblin Welder and Goblin Engineer. Warning! Don’t play in Chainer, Nightmare Adept decks! It doesn’t work the way you think it does!
- Bitter Reunion – Pretty cool tech for Ghen, Arcanum Weaver decks. I am really high on this common and hope to find further applications.
- The Fall of Kroog – This card can be mean if you cast it once. It gets meaner if you can copy it. Solid card for spellslingers that love Glimpse of Tomorrow.
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